How Hard Can it Be?

By Karen Coyle

(Draft, Jan. 1996)(Published in Wired_Women: Gender and New Realities
in Cyberspace from Seal Press, 1996)

Louise: ... And steal Darryl's fishin' stuff.
Thelma: Louise, I don't know how to fish.
Louise: Well neither do I, Thelma, but Darryl does it - how hard can it be?

Thelma & Louise, 1992

I Love the Smell of Silicon in the Morning

A woman says to me: "My daughters love science, and they use computers, but they just aren't
interested in technology."

Try this one: "My daughter is an excellent driver, but she has no interest
in internal combustion."

We're supposed to use computers, not worship them. There will be those fascinated
with the machine qua machine, but we have no reason to assume this to be a superior
approach. Except, of course, that it's the masculine approach by computer culture
standards, and therefore has the air of superiority. It's the difference between
those of us who just want to get to where we're going, and those of us who read
Car and Driver magazine. Behind the wheel, we're all called "drivers."

In 8.3 million households in America a woman is the primary home computer
user. Two out of every three on-the-job computer users is a woman.

But we still see computers as being a "guy thing." Stereotypes outweigh
reality, like when Rosie the Riveter did a "man's job." How could
it be a man's job while a woman is doing it? How can computers be masculine
when women and girls use them every day?

But this masculine image is constantly reinforced in the computer culture
and in the images presented in the consumer computing market. Rather than feminizing
the computer field, women must adopt and maintain some degree of macho to become
part of it. To question the masculinity of computers is tantamount to questioning
our image of masculinity itself: computers are power, and power, in our world,
must be the realm of men.

The Hero with 1024 Faces

PowerPC Pentium Power. Powerful Savings. ...powerful portable...
To understand the power of working together...
Project management software that so powerful... Powerful, but personal

Symantec sells its Norton Utilities with a Superman figure sporting the nerdish head of Peter
Norton. Stacker's upgrade notices came emblazoned with "Stackerman," a hip, muscled super-
hero. Current cultural heroes, generally sports figures, are used in many advertisements, though
some hero figures from the past are also employed: Davy Crockett, explorer, stands high on a
promontory looking out over the virgin territory before him. Even the anti-hero comes into play,
and a lone figure in a Sam Spade raincoat advertises virus-detection software.

Words used to describe the computer often have to do with power and with maleness.
Computing clearly requires great heroics and derring-do. Without heroes there
would be no computers. Steven Levy's book on the early adopters of the culture
of computer hacking is entitled Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

The key word here is "heroes," a decidedly male role with a great
deal of power.

Levy researched his book in great detail, especially the section relating
to the early computer activities at MIT that begin in the mid-50's. He has a
large cast of characters, all male, and even knows where they ate dinner and
what their favorite dish was. In only one paragraph does he approach the question:
why were there no female hackers, and answers:

"Even the substantial cultural bias against women getting into serious
computing does not explain the utter lack of female hackers. 'Cultural things
are strong, but not that strong,' Gosper would later conclude, attributing the
phenomenon to genetic, or 'hardware,' differences."

"Even the substantial cultural bias... does not explain...genetic, or
'hardware' differences." With little review of the facts, Levy concludes
that women are genetically unable to hack. He never considers relevant the fact
that this hacking took place in a campus building from midnight until dawn in
a world where women who are mugged at 2 a.m. returning from a friend's house
are told: 'what did you expect, being out at that hour?' Nor does he consider
that this hacking began in the early 1960's when MIT had few women students.
And though he describes his male hackers as socially inept, he doesn't inquire
into their attitudes toward women, and how those attitudes would shape the composition
of the hacking "club."

But most of all, he never considers the possibility that among the bright
women attending MIT at that time, none was truly interested in hacking. What
if the thousands of hours of graveyard shift amateur hacking wasn't really the
best way to get the job done? That would be unthinkable.

Levy's own adherence to the hero myth virtually excludes women from the field
of study. When one starts out looking for heroes, it is harder to imagine that
those heroes will be female. Like those he studies, Levy finds women uninteresting.
Roberta Williams, the woman who authored the first computer adventure games
while her husband, Ken, ran the computing shop, is referred to only obliquely
in the one-third of the book dedicated to the computer game company that she
and her husband ran. In Levy's account, Roberta is portrayed as a housewife
and mother whose authorship of the popular games was the least important part
of the process.

How far have we really come in the 150 years since Augusta Ada Lovelace, a
brilliant mathematician, toiled almost anonymously in a world where only men
were welcome? To provide her access to the library of the Royal Society in London
so that she could continue her studies in mathematics, Ada's husband became
a member. But as only men could enter the library, at one point Ada wrote to
one of her male friends in the society:

"When Lovelace became a member of the Royal Society several years ago,
it was entirely on my account. But the inconvenience of my not be able to go
there to look at particular Papers &c which I want, continually renders
the advantages I might derive quite nugatory. - Could you ask the Secretary
if I might go in now & then (of a morning of course) to hunt out the things
I require, being censÃ to do so in L's name .... I suppose there are certain
hours when I should not be liable to meet people there. Perhaps early in the
mornings."

Toole, Betty A. Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: A Selection from the Letters of Lord Byron's
Daughter and Her Description of the First Computer. Mill Valley, CA., Strawberry Press, 1992. p. 305

Cultural bias is that strong. Both the bias to view what men do as inherently
important, and the bias to discount the activities of women as being only auxiliary.
There are still those who claim that Ada did not write the mathematical pieces
that appeared under her name, even though her own letters and notes prove otherwise.
And there are the more subtle types of bias, those that tell us when and where
women can go out into the world and that determine whether she will be accepted
once she arrives there.

While these shouldn't be seen as excusing women from heroic activity, it does
mean that we can't look for women's contributions in male-defined institutions.
It takes different eyes to see where women have been and what they have done.
The role of women, like Ada Lovelace or Admiral Grace Hopper, who was instrumental
in the early development of assembler language, will not appear on the pages
of books that look to glorify male heroes. If we accept the standard view of
a male-dominated computer industry, we will never see the women who are making
a contribution.

"Friendly to your hand. Deadly to your enemy."

They're called "joy sticks." That should be the first clue. At the computer store, they are lined up
along a shelf, each black, erect, 6" to 8" tall. An improvement on nature's original design, they
have neat grooves that fit your hand so you can hold them for hours. But I just can't bring myself
to reach up and grasp one in public. It seems so... well, penile.

Each has a button on top that can be fired, again and again. One carries the
logo "Use it or Die." How biblical! Here we have the high-tech version
of Norman Mailer's "killer penis," which was a shockingly macho fantasy
even for Mailer. Maybe we should name one of these joy sticks after Mailer,
though I suppose he secretly wishes that he were named after one of them: The
Thrustmaster.

Penis as weapon; weapon as penis. Do we fight back with a virtual "vagina
dentata?" My local sex shop has quite an array of flexible, woman-friendly
silicone dildos in cheery purple and pink swirl designs. So similar in shape, but
such a different message.

Masculine/Feminine

The "machismo" of computing survives even though most computers are now "user-friendly" and
no longer require a degree in engineering or an explicit interest in science or math. In a column in
which he lauds the DOS operating system over the newer Windows OS, columnist John Dvorak
says:

"The original split between PC users and Mac users was a battle between the masculine
command-line interface and the girlish GUI."

"Girlish," not "feminine." The conflict here is between
men and women, not masculine and feminine, since those are qualities that any
of us can prefer, regardless of our sex. Or perhaps the conflict is between
men and not-men; between the hacker types and all of the other people, both
men and women, who prefer ease-of-use over control. If the machine itself is
an instrument of power, then conquering it, controlling it, is like moving another
step up in the evolutionary food chain.

Levy attributes some of the early resistance to the Macintosh as being related
to the computer culture's concept of "macho" computing:

"The previous paradigm of computing - command-based, batch-processed, barely coherent
- was deeply associated in the MIS community with masculinity.... Columnist John Dvorak
contrasted the Mac with the new version of IBM's computer, the AT, and called the latter
'a man's computer designed by men for men.'"

Levy, Steven. Insanely Great: the Life and Times the Macintosh, the Computer that Changed
Everything. Penguin Books, 1994. p. 197

Ten years later, the "girlish GUI" is still seen as an emasculating
interface. After a lengthy round of posts on one Usenet group debating the command
line versus the GUI, one participant replied:

It's a Guy Thing

The man sitting at the desk in the HP printer ad holds a basketball in one hand. Another ad has a
basketball with "Intel Inside" embossed on it. Under the words "Internet Made Easy" an arm
poises to slam dunk a basketball-sized world.

All these basketballs, and not one Nike shoe ad in the whole magazine. This
isn't about sports. If you want sports, you read Sports Illustrated or the sports
section in the newspaper. This is about being "guys." It's about balls.
Big balls. These ads have little to do with computing or sports, and everything
to do with the image of maleness.

"Vroom! Digital Engines Put a Pedal to the Metal

These days, though, Holley carbs, horsepower and cubic inches are passÃ.
The real speed thrills are to be found roaring down the info highway, where
the measure of muscle is MIPS...and bandwidth..."

New York Times, January 3, 1995, C18

On their Technology & Media page, the New York Times ran an article by
John Markoff on the "state of the art" in computing that was entirely
written in hot rod metaphor. The article was a clever use of a typical male
bonding activity, car talk, to present computing as its successor. When the
author was approached (via e-mail) by a group of women, he was surprised to
hear that his hot rod theme was viewed as "masculinizing" the computer.
His reply was that as far as he was concerned, women and men are equally interested
in cars and speed.

But it takes only a brief glance at magazines targeting men and those targeting
women to discern how different the themes are in these publications. If one
were to believe Sports Illustrated and Women's Day, men drink and drive (though
on different pages), and women cook and diet. Neither seems to be a fully representative
nor healthy view of the sexes, but it is striking that there is virtually no
overlap in content nor in advertising.

Undoubtedly the New York Times believes that its content is gender-neutral.
But as is so often the case, neutrality is much more masculine than it is feminine,
especially in discussions of technology.

Games

Computer games are notorious for their exhibition of macho. Most games are of the "if it moves,
shoot it" variety. Like male-oriented pornography, the games get right into the action with little
need for plot, motivation or character building. The character that represents the gamer is often a
hulking male figure. There are few female characters, unless they need to be rescued from trolls or
other such monsters (including other men who look much like the gamer character). The common
wisdom is that these games appeal overwhelmingly to men and boys, while women and girls are
attracted to games like Tetris or Solitaire.

One game advertisement gives away the secret:

The average male reaches his sexual peak at age 17.
And lives to the age of 73.
So what do you do with the 56 years in-between?

The computer game is a form of virtual virility. The themes are hyper-macho
and often revolve around the activities of sports and war. They come with names
like "Hardball 4," "Front Lines," "Body Count."
The ads for Doom , this year's most popular game, read: "Now there's a
place more violent than earth."

I get a mental picture of paunchy nerds or pimply-faced teenaged boys, able
to convince themselves that they really are the muscle-bound hero of a game
called "Mortal Kombat." It angers me that we encourage this self-glorification
in men, while at the same time the message that we give to girls is that they
don't measure up. Measure up to what? The kind of violent insanity that we expect
of men?

What would games be like if we designed them with a female audience in mind?
Would they be like the Barbie computer game where Barbie gets new outfits and
learns to be a fashion model? Or could we conceive of a game where a clever
woman saves the world for all humankind? Unfortunately, even our fantasies for
women are based on lowered expectations.

Then again, we women reach our sexual peak much later in life and maintain
it longer. Mentioning this in public is taboo; mentioning it in private gets
women beaten up. Part of our society's "male superiority" is that
we all agree to enter the fantasy of male superiority. Computers are ideal partners
in this vision. They are the soul-less companions that we women are unable to
be - obedient and unquestioning.

The Vision of Women

It's no wonder that women have a hard time seeing themselves in the computer culture.
Advertisements that talk to "you" almost invariably feature men, making it clear that women are
not the audience for computer wares. Review copy talks about "pictures of your wife and kids" as
if it were inconceivable that the reader be anything but male (and heterosexual.)

The exclusion of women and femininity is as obvious as the inclusion of male
imagery. And when women do appear, they are often there as objects of desire.
As if the more subtle ways that computer culture excludes women is not enough,
the high presence of pornography in the computer culture is an alienating factor
for many women. Computer trade shows are one of the few professional situations
today where women will be confronted with pornography being displayed and sold
openly. At a recent MacWorld exhibit, two different booths sold CD ROMS with
such titles as "Anal ROM," with the actresses present to sign copies.
And this at the same time that construction sites, military bases and firehouses
throughout the country are forbidding such materials because they might constitute
sexual harrassment.

CyberGirls

The image of the nerd is male, socially awkward and sexually frustrated. And as a matter of fact,
the computer industry is an active purveyor of porn. The back pages of many consumer computer
magazines are taken up with ads for a variety of "sexy" offerings most likely to appeal to men:

It's hard for me to imagine the appeal of looking at dirty pictures on a grainy,
14-inch screen when I can take a full-color magazine to bed with me for my enjoyment.
And it's pretty hard to think of sitting at my desk in my straight-backed office
chair getting sexually excited. Maybe this is an area where biology really does
determine a difference between male and female behavior, because essentially
I'm, well, I'm sitting on it, so this position just doesn't work for me.

Now You Can Have Your Own GIRLFRIEND (TM)
... a sensual woman living in your computer!
First VIRTUAL WOMAN. You can watch her, talk to her, ask her questions, and
relate to her. Over 100 actual VGA photographs allow you to see your girlfriend
as you ask her to wear different outfits, and guide her into different sexual
activities. An artificial intelligence program with a 3000 word vocabulary that
GROWS the more you use it. She will remember your name, your likes and dislikes.

Advertisement for " Sexy Software"

Finally, a woman he can relate to, and who even remembers his name. (And I bet he wishes that it
did GROW the more he used it.) This is the "artificial intelligence" version of the plastic blow-up
doll. A full relationship without having to involve another human being.

It's pretty clear what the market will be for virtual reality. The first virtual
sex is already on the market.

Hi. I'm Girlfriend Maria. (TM)
May I come live in your computer?
You won't believe your eyes (or ears) when this new Girlfriend takes up residence
in your PC! She's cute, she loves talking to you, and she actually learns! Peek
in on her as she goes about her daily activities, eating, playing the piano,
watching TV or reading. And she's really interactive; no archaic, limited mouse
menus - she responds to anything you say! This is the revolutionary artificial
intelligence game everyone's talking about, so get your copy now! Rated G, so
it's safe for the kids, too!

Well, at least she can play the piano. I mean, that shows she's had some proper
upbringing. Not like some of the girls, whose backgrounds are quite questionable.
And she's clean, so you can even introduce her to the kids without any embarrassment.

I can imagine Maria. Maybe she hasn't been here for very long. She's just
trying to make a better life for herself on this side of the border. And if
that means keeping some guy happy, well hey, as long as she doesn't have to
do anything... you know.

And she learns, she learns really fast. Next thing he knows, she's popping
up with little suggestions: "Move this out to three decimal places then
round off - you'll find it gives you better results," or "A slightly
bolder font, perhaps Garamond, will give this document a more forceful look."
He turns to her with more and more questions, then finally just turns the computer
over to her. She's much better at it all. Only, one day he notices something
funny about his credit card bill... and his hard disk is missing a lot of files...and
Maria's gone without a trace, except for the mysterious message that appears
at random intervals on his screen: "Hasta la vista, baby."

The "Other"

Remember when we were eight years old and the boys all decided that girls were "icky?" In the
computer field, we're still the example of "what not to be." Like Dvorak's "girlish GUI,"
femaleness often has a negative connotation in the computer world (unless, of course, it's in the
form of a virtual girlfriend.)

"I'm in dis bar arguin' with dis jerk about Schubert. I sez to him,
'The essential Schubertian style is in the unfolding of long melodies both brusque
and leisurely. That's the blessed earmark of Schubert's style and it's all anyone
needs to sense his distinctive attitude toward musical structures.' Well, in
a high girlie voice, the jerk tells me, 'By classical standards, it's fairly
loose construction' To which I replies, 'Dis is Schubert, tough guy; and belaboring
him with his musical ancestors is like comparing apples to oranges.' And then
I decked him."

The "high girlie voice" got this guy "decked." The speaker
is featured as a big, hairy biker type. Not the image of your typical male computer
user, but clearly heavy on the desired testosterone scale. In this case, the
negative image of femaleness also translates to a more than plausible homophobia.

Women as Roadkill On the SuperHighway

Women are a minority on the Internet today, at least as active participants. No one knows exactly
how many people use the Internet, much less their sex, but estimates put female participation at
somewhere from 10-25 percent. It's obvious to women who make their first forays into Cyberspace that
it's mainly men out there.

The highway metaphor lends itself well to masculine images. The same New York
Times article that talked of computers in hot rod lingo showed a cool dude with
a souped-up computer leaving tire tracks over his slower rivals. To the side,
the only woman in the picture (dressed in 50's bobby-soxer style) looked on
admiringly with the caption "Ooh, what MIPS!" It's not that long ago
that in many activities women merely stood along the sidelines and cheered men
on, but it's hard to accept that image applied to the technology of the future.
That's not the future we've fought for.

An advertisement for software that allows a direct Internet hookup from a
PC shows a man on a motorcycle and the caption "Pop a wheelie on the Information
Highway." On closer inspection you see a pair of high heels flying off
the back of the bike: his wheelie has just dumped a woman on the road. Not a
friendly image for women, but the guy is portrayed as having the time of his
life. If the company saw women as potential customers, it would not - could
not - have chosen that image: woman as roadkill.

Another illustration shows a more subtle type of masculine appeal. The cover
of a local weekly highlighted an article entitled: "Plugging In: An idiot's
guide to the Internet." The background is a circuit board with heavily
made-up, sexy female eyes. In the center (about where her nose would have been)
is the screen of a laptop. Into the empty space of the screen an enlarged phone
cord is "plugging in." You have to wonder if the creators of these
pieces are aware of the sexual message of their imagery. In this case, I'm not
sure. But the appeal of the Internet is presented as sexual, or at least sexy,
and the intended audience is a man - even if this particular man is also an
"idiot."

There's the assumption in our society that men's activities are difficult,
and that is why women can't or don't engage in them. Women's activities are,
of course, inferior, which is why men don't engage in them. So when we look
at a man fishing and a woman quilting, we make some assumptions about the skill
or strength required for the task. We need to start looking at this in a different
way. If men choose to spend their time playing golf or waxing their cars and
women choose to spend that same time making dessert or cleaning closets, does
this really tell us that anything about the amount of skill required or the
kind of respect we should give to those who perform these activities?

The difference isn't in skill but in the social status already assigned to
the activity. And we all support this status with our assumptions of the superiority
of male activities. What needs to change is not the activities of women and
men, but our attitudes toward them.

Men are unlikely to be supporters of such a change in consciousness. For women
to become full participants in the computer field and in the use of computers,
we are going to have to make a lot of revisions in our concept of machines and
power. One possibility is that computers will eventually be seen as simple appliances,
like the refridgerator. Stripped of the image of power it will become acceptable
for women to be computer users.

But it is doubtful that we will be able to demote the computer to appliance
status in the near future. The inevitable march toward the development of the
"information superhighway" means that we are depending on the power
and mystique of computers to provide new markets for our economy for the foreseeable
future. And a machine with all of the fascination of a toaster won't motivate
the consumer market.

No, what we will need is a conspiracy of sisters that begins with the recognition
that there is nothing inherently masculine about computers. We must learn to
read the computer culture for the social myth that is. And we have to teach
our younger generation of women that they are free to explore computers in their
own way and to draw their own conclusions about the usefulness of these machines.
There is so much that we haven't yet done with computers, so many programs that
haven't been written, because they were serving only a minority of our society.

And we start it all with a simple thought that could be the beginning of a
revolution: how hard can it be?